Cecile Richards Tortuous Tantrum

A few days ago, Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards wrote a rather contemptuous column about the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. The tenor of her remarks speaks for itself, as her opening salvo proclaims,

Does anyone else see the irony in the U.S. bishops wanting to define universal health care as covering everything except for what they don’t support? Under this theory, I suppose women are supposed to wait to see just exactly how the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops comes down on a variety of health care needs to understand what in fact will be considered universal. Since when does universal health care mean denying comprehensive reproductive health care supported by the majority of Americans?...

The root cause of unsafe abortion is unintended pregnancy, a result of the lack of affordable and accessible contraception for women. The correlation between higher contraceptive use and lower maternal mortality is well established.

Indeed, it would seem that she despises any teaching of the Catholic Church that does not conform to her opinion of what comprises health care for women. But wait a minute! Could it be that PP actually considers sucking the life out of a human being or cutting him to pieces with a knife a form of reproductive health care? Of course it does.

But wait! The scenario gets even more bizarre at this juncture. As reported by the Catholic News Agency, Richard Doerflinger, associate director of the USCCB’s Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities, takes Richards to task:

“Our major arguments on this have not been about contraception,” [Doerflinger] clarified. “She likes to change the subject.

“But it is the case that there is a great deal of evidence that contraceptive programs fail to reduce abortions. We cite the primary sources for that on our website so that people can read them for themselves.”…

Doerflinger said the bishops’ materials about health care reform have been centered on supporting universal coverage, but opposing mandated abortion coverage.

“She keeps talking about how we’re trying to diminish a right,” he said of Richards. “A mandate is not consistent with a personal choice. If what she’s talking about is people’s personal ability to choose whether or not to buy abortion coverage, we’re not going to oppose legislation that allows that."

What is happening in this discourse is quite interesting and, one might argue, troubling at the same time. It is quite true that the USCCB is against mandated abortion coverage in a universal health care system; however, the USCCB has not demanded that contraceptive coverage, sterilization coverage and other such immoral aspects of PP’s agenda be removed. Indeed, the USCCB argues for abortion neutrality, which is what Doerflinger is getting at when he explains that the USCCB is against mandated abortion coverage, not the availability of abortion coverage as a personal choice.

Obviously, Richards is not interested in splitting hairs with the USCCB; she just wants mandatory coverage for killing, period!

In response to Richards’ flagrantly erroneous claims, Human Life International president Rev. Thomas Euteneuer issued a statement wherein he applauded the Catholic bishops for standing up to Richards’ deceit and explained how wrong Richards is to claim that contraceptives actually curtail the number of babies killed by abortion:

[A]mong her many factual errors Ms. Richards claims that, despite the findings of virtually every study on the subject, expanded access to contraception will somehow reduce the number of abortions. What does she recommend, force-feeding young women contraception? How much more access can be granted to this environment-destroying, blood-clot causing, biology-altering chemical that, as the Catholic Church predicted, has resulted in more, not less, abortions?

Amen, Father Euteneuer! Richards is constantly depicting contraception as a solution to the “problem” of “unwanted pregnancies.” She also denies the fact that these chemicals can abort a preborn child.

But wait! It gets even worse. Richards’ diatribe against the Catholic bishops is obviously designed to deflect attention away from the fact that, according to recent news reports, America could face a “health care reform” law that not only mandates funding for child killing by abortion, but also forces it to subsidize PP in ways few could now imagine. Yes, PP could be in classrooms across this nation, peddling its lies and its products at taxpayers’ expense!

Richards isn’t about to bring this fact out! We have already established that Richards and truthful statements are not in the same ballpark and maybe not even on the same planet. But Victor Medina does expose the truth:

Under Title V (“Other Provisions”) of Obama’s “America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009” (the official name for the bill, H.R. 3200), Subtitle B (School-Based Health Clinics, or SBHC) outlines a program in which the federal government would fund clinics in or near the nation’s schools. The administration of these clinics will not rest with the school nurse or anyone who answers to the school administration or parents. Under Section 399Z, “the SBHC sponsoring facility assumes all responsibility for the SBHC administration, operations, and oversight.”

According to the bill, a “sponsoring facility” is “a hospital, a public health department, a community health center, a nonprofit health care agency, (or) a local educational agency.” Such broad wording outlining the qualifications for government funds and access to schoolchildren could open the door for groups like Planned Parenthood to operate the clinics in schools with no oversight and full federal government support. The organization currently operates over 850 clinics nationwide.

The clinics would be funded by federal grants awarded by the Obama administration, which has made it clear that they expect Planned Parenthood to play an active role in their proposed health care system. In the midst of the recent national debate this summer and during the Congressional recess over the health care plan, members of the Obama administration were meeting with Planned Parenthood staff and making strong overtures over their potential role in health care reform.

Hello? Cecile, are you there? Why aren’t you touting this fact, which is printed in black and white in the House bill?

This report reveals what PP's endgame really is. It is the reason PP can decry anything the USCCB puts forth. It matters not if the bishops take a stand for eliminating all references to abortion, whether privately or publicly funded. It matters not whether the USCCB addresses contraception and sterilization, demanding that those so-called reproductive health services be eliminated. PP just has to keep the guns blazing in order to deflect attention away from what would really occur if Obamacare became public policy.

Once PP is firmly ensconced in the driver’s seat, brainwashing children right and left while American taxpayers foot the bill (paying perhaps millions more than anyone could have imagined), it need not worry about anything. It’s been working toward this moment for 40 years. Ever since PP’s hand first went into the government pocket and came out with a fistful of dollars, the skids have been greased for what could soon become the ultimate victory envisioned in PP’s scheme.

This is one of the reasons why we have repeatedly begged our Catholic bishops to make it clear that the USCCB’s Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services provide the foundation for their position on Obamacare.

There is no doubt that our nation needs health care reform, but a plan that would be implemented under the culture of death’s growing shadow should never even be considered. President Obama has shown us where he stands; now it is time for the Catholic bishops to show us where they stand, not only on mandatory abortion coverage, but on all those life-and-death matters that would be profoundly affected by national "health care reform” implemented under a president unmistakably committed to promoting the culture of death.

We are grateful to the USCCB for responding to PP’s latest fiction, but much more is needed. We reiterate our request that the USCCB make it clear for one and all that genuine health care reform will not promote, provide nor include coverage for any of the following:

If any of these things is included in a final "health care reform” bill, the death knell will be sounded for Catholic health care in America, and sadly, Cecile’s tortuous tantrum will become a victory cry.